Happy Trails

[Bill]

To Steve McNair.

I can count on one hand the number of quarterbacks during my tenure as rabid fan that could reasonably claim to be Football Players. Not football players, but Football Players. You get the distinction. Eddie Kennison quit football the day before a game he was supposed to start. football player. Ronnie Lott had his pinky amputated at halftime so that he could play the second half. Football Player.

There are a lot more football players than Football Players, period. Most Football Players play defense. Linebackers. Nitschke, Butkus, Lambert, Singletary. Being great is not enough. Neon Deion, perhaps the greatest player in my lifetime, football player. Being tough, willing to do anything to win, is also not enough. Bill Romanowski, football player. There is a dignity and a class to being a Football Player, an intelligence and wisdom.

Steve McNair was a very good quarterback. Not great. He will get relatively little Hall of Fame consideration, and should not get a whole lot more than that.

But if you were down 4 with 45 seconds left and you had to send in one quarterback with no arms and no legs to try to win the game, you would choose McNair. Or you should. He had prodigious athletic talent, but won more games with his head, heart and balls than with his arms and legs.

McNair was a Football Player. In a world of poofy GQ models, he was a Marine.

[Van Walker]

Sadly, I have to agree with your Hall assessment. If they put guys in the Hall of Fame based solely on testicular fortitude, McNair is a first-ballot, unanimous selection.

As it stands, he's a first-ballot, unanimous selection for the Hall of Very Good.

By the way, here's a few more for your definition...

Chuck Bednarik. Football Player.

Jim Brown. Football Player.

Walter Payton. Football Player.

(One almost thinks that there are football players, Football Players, and Football Players. I'm tempted to put a lot of the guys you named and the ones I named into that latter category.)